Local Hero

Nominee

2019 NSW Local Hero Nominee

Mr John Dyball

State: New South Wales

Teacher and Deputy Principal, John Dyball, single-handedly managed a boarding school program for Indigenous boys, later expanding the program to girls. The program provided scholarships to elite schools across New South Wales to hundreds of NSW South Coast Indigenous students – helping break the cycle of inequality and intergenerational trauma.

As a school teacher, Deputy Principal and Head of Student Welfare at Shoalhaven High School, John Dyball saw the desire in many of his Indigenous students to break the cycle of inequality and intergenerational trauma.

Throughout his teaching career and into retirement, he single-handedly designed and managed an Indigenous boarding school scholarship program - What IF, the Power of Choice. The program arranged scholarships to outstanding boarding' schools across New South Wales to hundreds of NSW South Coast Indigenous boys. Later, expanding the program to include girls.

John has forged close relationships with local Indigenous communities, supporting and encouraging Indigenous students through countless trips to Sydney and telephone calls to families and students. He has spent his retirement expanding his scholarship program to be run by Indigenous people, for Indigenous people across New South Wales, and long term, nationally. To achieve this, John has engaged prominent Indigenous partners and mentors, including Greg Inglis and Theresa Ardler (lawyer, academic) and Dylan Farrell (former footballer) both his past students.